Celestial by M.D. Lachlan

(Gollancz, 2022)

Reviewed by Steven French

This is a weird and wonderful slice of ‘alternative history’ set in 1977 about a Buddhist who goes to the moon, overcomes various obstacles, both physical and mental, including her own grief over the death of her much-loved sister and discovers the true nature of consciousness and reality. If that sounds ‘deep’ or ‘heavy’, well it really isn’t, thanks to Lachlan’s deft touch and the threads of humour that he weaves through the narrative.

The hero is Zigsa—‘Ziggy’—Da Luca, an Asian-American post-doc researching the art and artefacts of Tibetan Buddhism, who is recruited by NASA to add diversity and fresh perspectives to the on-going space programme. Or so she thinks. As it turns out, they really want her on board because of her PhD on lunar ritual practices that suggest the presence of an alien device on the moon. A suggestion that is indeed borne out by observations and so, after signing a non-disclosure agreement and embarking on the accelerated astronauts’ prep programme, Ziggy finds herself on the moon standing before that very artefact. This, she suspects, is a physical manifestation of the ‘Thunderbolt Vehicle’, one of the three routes to enlightenment of Tantric Buddhism. And it is at this point that things get distinctly trippy, with Lachlan tipping his hat not only to 2001: A Space Odyssey but also Solaris (and perhaps David Bowie as well!).

What propels the story forward are first, Ziggy’s fractious relationship with crew-mate Griffin, a Vietnam vet whose racist and sexist comments strain her Buddhist equanimity almost to breaking point; second, the presence of the Russians, who actually entered the vehicle first, and whose back-up crew reluctantly join forces with the Americans; and finally, Kovacs, a Hungarian member of that second group who, like Ziggy, is trained in Buddhist teachings but whose mind and motivations remain opaque, until the inevitable denouement. This motley crew must then face a succession of challenges thrown up by the Thunderbolt Vehicle itself as it draws on images and events from their sub-consciouses. Given the group’s very different cultural backgrounds, this generates some wild and whacky scenes, including a jungle attack by a giant spider whose body is studded with human heads plus a couple of American anti-war placards, and an aerial escape from a helicopter gunship using Baba Yaga’s little cottage on chicken legs. This disturbing mix of recent horror and ancient myth is leavened somewhat by Lachlan’s sense of humour, perhaps most evident in the repeated evocation by one of the cosmonauts of context-appropriate Hollywood movies, for which he always has an anti-capitalist interpretation to hand.

I suspect this may be one of those books that divide opinion. Certainly, there are scenes that edge towards the self-indulgent and some might balk at the final reflections on the nature of consciousness and reality, sprinkled with a dash of ‘quantum woo-woo’ for good measure. However, Lachlan writes so engagingly and Ziggy is such a compelling character, whose unyielding sense of compassion conveys perhaps the core message of the book, that I can’t help but feel it is one that will stay with me for a good long while.

Review from BSFA Review 20 - Download your copy here.